Editorial: Natural area acquisitions suffer from YMCA deal

On Tuesday, barring surprises, Spokane County commissioners will identify their 10 top priorities from a list of 36 natural areas that had been nominated for acquisition with the county’s Conservation Futures funds.

There are always more desirable properties to consider than money available from the modest, dedicated property tax that funds the Conservation Futures program, but for at least the next dozen years the limitation will be tighter than usual.

That’s how long it’s expected to take to pay off the $4.3 million debt from the Spokane Park Board’s hasty purchase of the former YMCA building and less than an acre of land that it sits on in Riverfront Park.

To put matters in perspective, the principal and interest in the Y deal equal about a third of the $14.5 million that has been spent acquiring more than 5,000 acres to date in the 16 years of the Conservation Futures program.

That expenditure is an excessive draw on a fund that enjoys wide popularity among the public, which was told it was meant for the preservation of ecologically important lands that otherwise could be gobbled up with development. The Y site, after all, hasn’t been a natural area for generations. In fact, the Spokane Park Board expects to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to restore the site to a natural state once the Y building is demolished – which also will cost an estimated $500,000 to $600,000.

In all, it is a costly and lasting testament to the Spokane Park Board’s hostility toward private development on one small parcel along the Spokane River. The site might have wound up on the tax rolls. It might have attracted downtown residents and generated urban vibrancy in Spokane’s core.

But the Park Board headed all that off by committing millions it didn’t have, ultimately persuading county commissioners to bail it out by diverting $4.3 million from the genuine conservation opportunities the fund was intended to pursue.

As the county commissioners prepare for Tuesday’s meeting, the Park Board and the Spokane City Council this week moved forward on the procedural requirements for satisfying the Conservation Futures funding. In coming months, the demolition contract is expected to be issued and by midyear the work should be substantially complete, allowing the transfer of the money.

It is too late to reverse a mistake to which the Park Board, the City Council and the Board of Spokane County Commissioners all contributed. But that doesn’t mean the episode is over, not as long as deserving natural areas fall below the priority cutoff line.

As a member of the commissioners’ advisory committee noted, “There will be some disappointed folks who will see their nominations farther down the list.”

And there always will be, but the disappointment didn’t have to run quite as deep.